Re: [A-List] Shopping: How it Became Our National Disease

[Leigh Meyers <leighcmeyers@xxxxxxxxx>]

Nestor Gorojovsky wrote:
> Respuesta a:"[A-List] Shopping: How it Became Our National Dis"
> Enviado por:Bill Totten
> Con fecha:22 Sep 2006, a las 18:02
>
>   
> > We are rapidly turning into a nation of continuous shoppers, unable to
> > walk the streets without making purchases, however trivial.
> >     
>
> In order to do so, most people the globe over have been turned into a 
> mob of continuous paupers, unable to walk the streets (where many of 
> them live) without longing for the ability to make purchases, however 
> essential.
>   
.
Nestor, It's even stranger than that. Where I live, near Monterey 
California, and I suppose it's the same for much of the Bay area around 
San Francisco... if you don't own a car, you are a second class citizen 
no matter how much money and other stuff you have.

Further, in the "crass displays of ineffectiveness" department, there 
was a "World Peace" event last night. A short report follows:

Last night, I went up by the Monterey Bay (California) for my nightly 
bike ride.

There was a "World Peace" event happening along the water edge drive 
with spotlights set up pointing at the sky. Thousands of cars were 
streaming along the narrow two lane road.

I walked my bike down the sidewalk pointing at the cars and saying out 
loud: "One dead Iraqi", "Two Dead Iraqis", Oh *look* an SUV with one 
occupant! "Three dead Lebanese!".
The people walking by looked at me like I was nuts.

I pigeon-holed anyone who looked like an event co-ordinator and asked in 
a rather enraged manner what the point of the event was... to attract 
all those cars driving purposelessly around? Didn't they know that the 
peace they were seeking was unavailable due in a large part to the 
indiscriminate use of automobiles, gasoline, and oil? Many participants 
arrived in their cars long after the hour-long event ended, due to a 
traffic jam that went on for at least two miles along the streets of 
Santa Cruz and up the coast.

One organizer told me that I had a good point, smiled a stupid, 
uninterested grin, and walked off.

Another told me she was in a gooood mood till I came along.

I told that one that her and her friends were a bunch of bourgeois 
morons, she replied by telling me to watch my mouth and made an 
aggresive move towards me (unconsummated).

Yeah, Peace... Out...


Leigh
http://leighm.net/